DOH Releases Nursing Home Funding
(Dec. 10, 2024) On Dec. 5th, the Department of Health (DOH) posted letters on the Health Commerce System (HCS) informing nursing homes whether they qualify for the federal portion of safe staffing funding. The letters are available on the Document Management System section of the HCS (i.e., the same location where DOH posts staffing compliance notices). Those eligible for the funding should see it reflected in Medicaid payment cycle 2468, scheduled for release on Dec. 26th.
These dollars date back to the 2022-23 State Budget, which included $187 million to help defray the cost of what was then the new nursing home staffing mandate. Free-standing nursing homes received the State-share portion of this funding in March 2023 (Medicaid payment cycle 2377); hospital-based homes received their State share in late January 2024. This current distribution represents the federal share of the funding. The amount of $1,340 per certified bed is larger than the prior distribution because DOH applied additional eligibility criteria that disqualified some facilities that had received State-share funding.
Members may recall that although the statutory minimum spending requirements did not become effective until 2022, the State used the provisions of that law as the criteria to determine eligibility for the staffing funding. Providers that spent at least 70 percent of revenue on direct care and 40 percent or more on resident-facing staffing based on 2020 Medicaid cost report data received a distribution of State-share funding. This included all but 12 LeadingAge NY nursing home members (continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) were not eligible).
In determining eligibility for the federal share distribution, the State used the same 2020 cost report data but applied a 5 percent profit cap, a provision of the minimum spending legislation that had not been applied when eligibility for State-share funding was calculated. As a result, approximately 70 facilities that had been deemed eligible for funding previously were now determined to be ineligible. These facilities were notified by DOH that the State-share funding that they received earlier would be recouped. This recoupment impacts about 70 homes, 10 of which are LeadingAge NY members with whom we have been in touch. Please reach out if your distribution does not seem to square with the information provided above or if you have questions. The Department is accepting questions at nhsafestaffing@health.ny.gov.
Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841